Ederson, Fabio and Grohe: Brazilian keepers set to take centre stage at Club World Cup

Here’s a confident prediction for the Club World Cup, under way in Saudi Arabia and awaiting the arrival of its heavyweights for next week’s later rounds: A Brazilian goalkeeper will be centre stage at the trophy lift come December 22 in Jeddah.

A bolder forecast would be that Brazilian keepers pick up gold, silver and bronze medals by the end of the tournament. Given that half the six teams left in the Club World Cup have an excellent custodian from Brazil entrusted with the first-team gloves, the chances of one of them triumphing are already even.

Given that Ederson, Fabio and Marcelo Grohe are last lines of defence for, respectively, the European and Premier League champions, Manchester City; for the Copa Libertadores holders, Fluminense; and for the host city’s representative club and reigning Saudi Pro League champions, Al Ittihad, the probability of a podium of Brazilian glovemen looks reasonably high.

Between them these compatriots, one in his 40s, the youngest recently turned 30, could tell a vivid history of how extensively the demands of modern goalkeeping have altered and how their country has hugely enhanced its reputation for developing top-class keepers.

At an evergreen 43, Fluminense’s Fabio has been playing elite football for long enough to remember when players in his position were considered the least desirable export in the vast industry that is Brazilian talent-for-hire.

Scouts from Europe tended, at the turn of the millennium, to seek an abundance of attacking players from Brazil but overlooked their goalkeepers. When the Selecao, the national team, won the 2002 World Cup with a majority of their squad based at clubs in Europe, all three keepers were home-based.

But times were changing, as were